ARIEL Rodrigues ended her campaign at the South American Youth Swimming Championship with a 5th place in 100 metres freestyle on Saturday.

She stopped the clock in 1 minute 02.50 seconds after entering the race with a time of 1 minute 01.82 seconds.

Rodrigues swimming in her 50m Backstroke made some strides improving on her entry time of 33.12 but she was unable to lower her own 50 metres backstroke record of 32.45.

She finished marginally off the record, touch the wall in 32.89 seconds, the finish was good enough for 6th place in the event.

After the completion of her races her full time coach Sean Baksh says that they achieved what they set out to do. “It was very creditable, it was according to the game plan that we set out, I wanted her to break the backstroke 100 record because she was just about 10 points away from the 500 FINA points with the 1.12 she set in Paraguay, that was the game plan we worked towards and she executed it flawlessly. She is now 510 FINA points on the back of the 100 metres backstroke and she is all set and the other events she stayed close to her best times.”

Coach Baksh says they will be targeting other records when Rodrigues competes in Trinidad later this year.

Earlier in the competition this week Rodrigues finished 5th in the women’s 50 metres freestyle. She entered the race with a blistering 27.83 seconds managed to stop the clock in 27.88 seconds.

She was the lone swimmer at the games and reset the national record in the women’s 100 metres backstroke and set a new personal best in the women’s 50 metres freestyle in 30.87 seconds.

Rodrigues  was the lone swimmer for Guyana and was coached at the championship by Christol Thom.